Making a documentary easily spans years, and during this development and production process often more cultural exchange and impact is created than during the so-called “theatrical release.” Bringing together the knowledge of filmmakers, curators, writers, bloggers and specialists for audience engagement, we explore how the web can enable us to rethink documentary production as an ongoing, holistic and culturally more diverse and democratic process. Topics to consider include cutting-edge interactive and cross-cultural work models, research and the creation of a public archive and how audience engagement helps grow a project’s effect at all stages.

Dorothee Wenner

A documentary filmmaker, author and journalist, Dorothee Wenner has been on the selection committee of Berlinale Forum since 1990 and serves as the Berlinale delegate for India and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is also a founding jury member of the Africa Movie Academy Awards.

Elise McCave

As Director of Narrative Film at Kickstarter, Elise McCave is responsible for working with filmmakers and film organizations worldwide to bring film and video projects to life, to build communities of support and to ensure the voices on Kickstarter come from all corners of the community, producing work that explores the form to the fullest. She was previously Deputy Director at BRITDOC, a non-profit working with documentary filmmakers based in London and New York.

Kimberly Drew

Kimberly Drew is a curator, writer and the social media manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Her blog “Black Contemporary Art” and her Instagram channel “museummammy” are among the most influential digital platforms for African and African-American art worldwide. She studied art history and African-American studies with an emphasis on museum studies at Smith College, and has been awarded the AIR Gallery Feminist Curator Award for her curatorial work.

Nanna Heidenreich

Nanna Heidenreich is a professor for “Digital Narratives – Theory” at the Internationale Filmschule Köln (IFS). Since 2009 she has been co-curator of Forum Expanded at the Berlinale. She is currently working as a researcher and curator for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin on three projects dealing with the nation state, migration and education. She has widely published on migration, visual culture, postcolonial media theory, art and activism; edited several DVDs (political, experimental and feminist filmmaking practices) and is part of the preparation network for the tribunal (May 2017).

Alison Norrington

Alison Norrington is a writer/producer and the CEO and founder of Storycentral, a London-based entertainment studio that incubates transmedia properties with global partners in film, TV, publishing, advertising, branding and gaming. She is a best-selling novelist and playwright, as well as a PhD researcher with an MA in Creative Writing and New Media. Over the past 20 years, she has provided consulting and talent development support for numerous broadcasters and film schools.